Tuesday, September 15, 2009

welcome Zoe Campbell Beers!

We welcomed the newest member of the Beers’ clan on 9/14/09! Zoe Campbell was born at 1:03 PM and weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. She’s beautiful and just perfect all over and we’re enjoying getting to know our new daughter.

I had scheduled my c-section for 12:15 on September 14th. We arrived at the hospital at 10:00 for all the lovely pre-surgery admission stuff. I walked into the surgery room at 12:20 PM to get prepped and my doctor started opening me up at 12:50. It takes half an hour to get a spinal block as well as get everything prepped and ready to go! She was born just 13 minutes after the first incision! As she was being pulled out, I heard two nurses say “That’s not a little girl!” and I immediately thought that they meant that it was a boy! But they actually just meant that she was a big girl, not a little girl. So, all was well =)

After she was born, Matt went with her and the nurses to the adjacent room as they cleaned her up and weighed her. Then she was all set and Matt got to hold her for the rest of the surgery. He sat right next to me so I was able to look at her and talk to her while I was laying there. But, let me tell ya, I as SO uncomfortable for the rest of the surgery. My eyes itched horribly and I could barely keep them open. The oxygen tubes in my nose were driving me crazy. My hands (my arms were laying straight out to the side) had fallen asleep and I couldn’t feel anything. After the doctor delivered Zoe, he tied my tubes, cut out a bunch of scar tissue from previous c-sections, and inserted a pain pump tube into the area of the surgery. I had to lay there till 2:15 PM as he did all that! It was a long process, especially when all I wanted to do was hold my newest baby girl! After everything was sewed up, they wheeled us back to the recovery room and we stayed there for a full hour. I was able to nurse Zoe a couple of times in there and Matt started making some phone calls. We were finally able to get back to our post-partum room at about 3:30 PM.

Zoe has been amazing! She is nursing and sleeping pretty well and also enjoys being held. She is quite the little cuddle bug. The craziest thing about her is that she looks exactly like Macy did when she was born. Exactly. We keep calling her Macy because she looks just like her! It will take us a while to have “Zoe” ingrained in our brains as her name!

The first full night was extremely horrible for me. I literally did not sleep at all. Zoe was fine and she was not the problem at all. I was in a ton of pain, I could not get comfortable (hospital beds are just not the best), my butt and legs kept falling asleep from being in a bed all day long (I was unable to get up quite yet), my hands had fallen asleep and were numb and tingly, and I was hooked up to quite a few different IVs, tubes, and catheters. So, anytime I even attempted to move positions, I had to move about 8 tubes or IVs and get everything situated. Not fun. But mostly I was just in a lot of pain. I had a great nurse who was trying to keep me comfortable, but nothing was working. Matt was here, but he slept most of the night on the couch unless he was helping me feed Zoe. I wanted him to sleep because he had to take care of Jackson and Macy today and its not fun being a tired daddy! Finally, at 3:00 AM my nurse suggested that I go ahead and try to stand up and walk and sit in a chair to make me more comfortable. Standing up was extremely painful and not fun, but I managed to make it to a comfy chair. I tried falling asleep in the chair, but was even unable to sleep there. Basically, it was just one crappy night! At 5:00 AM I was so upset with the tubes and catheters sticking out of me, that my nurse went ahead and quickly finished my IV medications and unhooked me. She also gave me two Percocet pills and within 15 minutes I literally had no pain. Plus, I was a happy camper because I was unhooked from all the tubes! I was able to take a shower and change clothes and I immediately felt much better. I took a long nap this afternoon in between visiting with friends and family. Zoe has been perfect all day! Right now is the end of day #2 and I am having a lot of abdominal pain again. Plus a lot of bloated gassy pain. It really hurts to stand up/sit down. I’m just hoping I can sleep better tonight.

Jackson and Macy have been busy little bees these past two days. They got to spend a lot of time with Grandma! Jackson has gone to school everyday and has had fun telling everyone about his newest sister. Both kids have really enjoyed seeing Zoe and touching her. They get a little crazy and wild in the hospital room, so they haven’t stayed here for very long each day. They have both held her a few times and seem to understand that there is a new baby! Macy has been quite a little pistol for Grandma and daddy these past two days. She’s thrown a few more fits than normal and has had quite an opinion lately. I think she is just being a typical two year old and also she is sorta confused about where I have been these past two days. I’m hoping they both transition to Zoe well when I come home on Friday.